How Can I Check My Teen's SMS?

In this time of high-tech crime, cyberbullying and sexually explicit short message service (SMS) messages between teenagers, it is important for parents to monitor their children's cellphone usage. While no parent relishes the idea of spying on their teens, supervision of teenage texting and cellphone habits sometimes becomes necessary. A variety of options are available to worried parents who wish to gain further insight into their teen's cellphone habits.

Instructions

    • 1

      Discuss cellphone protocol with teenagers. By establishing agreed-upon rules for cellphone use with teenagers, it may be possible to prevent problems before they occur. If a parent plans to check up on their teen's SMS messages, they should consider whether or not they wish to share this information with the teen.

    • 2

      Understand the basic provisions of the cellphone coverage provided to the teenager. Nearly all cellphone plans allow the plan holder to monitor the frequency and timing of phone calls, text messages and other communications among phones. This information will also include details on which phone numbers text messages were sent to and can usually be retrieved online. Unfortunately, the information given by the cellphone provider will not contain the actual text of any SMS messages.

    • 3

      Check the teen's physical phone to read their incoming and outgoing SMS messages. Outgoing messages can usually be found in the "Sent Messages" folder, while incoming messages are located in the "Inbox." However, if teens are aware that their parents are monitoring their cellphone usage, they may delete all incoming and outgoing text messages upon receiving them.

    • 4

      Investigate the software solutions available to parents for the monitoring of teenage texting habits. Several companies offer spyware that can be installed on phones to provide comprehensive logs of incoming and outgoing messages that are received or sent by a teen's cellphone. These programs tends to be available only for the more technologically advanced smart phones that allow the downloading of external software programs. Investing in a smart phone and coupling it with a parental monitoring program is the best way to comprehensively monitor a teen's cellphone usage.

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